I did so: and Maggie received my gift awkwardly, glancing between her thanks at "Millie," to discover whether she were being betrayed into over-warmth.
[CHAPTER XXII.]
MYSTERIOUS HOLES.
August 5. Wednesday.
I CANNOT quite understand the condition of things. From Thyrza alone I have steady affection and support. All the rest are in unequivocal opposition.
Even Elfie—my little clinging Elfie—has changed. I do not know why. Though not so poorly as last week, and able to be about again, she seems fractious and peevish, and nervous fancies are regaining their old sway over her. The fusses about what she can and cannot do, will and will not eat, are endless.
Now, too, she distinctly turns from me and turns to Miss Millington. If I say a word about not giving way to fancies, she bursts out crying, and "Millie" ostentatiously comforts her, assisted by Maggie, who has all at once left off remarks anent "coddling."
Miss Millington's influence over the girls is to me more and more extraordinary. There seems absolutely nothing in her, which might account for it. I can only suppose that having, through the force of circumstances, gained a certain power over Maggie's weakness, she controls the younger girls through Maggie, one following in another's wake. With the exception of Thyrza—and, it may be, of Nellie,—the sisters have a droll fashion of running in the same groove.
Last Saturday looks often to me like a dream,—only not a dream, for the pain remains. But I would rather not write about it. We go on much as usual. Sometimes I almost think I must have been mistaken. The one thing about which I can feel no possible doubt is Miss Millington's intense and growing dislike to me.
Maggie has had a long letter from Nellie. But for Thyrza, I should have been kept in complete ignorance of its contents. This is, I suppose, poor Maggie's small revenge on me, for not having shown her Mrs. Romilly's letters,—only it seems almost too small to be credible! "Millie" of course hears everything, and takes care to make me aware of the fact.